Sunday, January 1, 2017

Happy New Year!

2017 is shaping up to be quite the year.

My new career in education continues to be as rewarding as it is demanding. There's a new Nintendo platform on the horizon, though my skepticism in the platform and the company after the WiiU failed to sell me is strong. I turn 45 years old in April, and 2017 marks 20 years since the year that I consider to be the best year ever in console video game history-- 1997. My video game library continues to expand, as I am closing in on 500 original PlayStation titles among the over 2,000 games that I have overall. I have goals in terms of what I'd like to add to my library this year. There's also the third annual RetroWorld Expo, which hasn't yet been announced but seems very likely before long. Oh yeah, I have this website with my name on it now, too.

RetroWorld Expo. My favorite event.

...and that's just getting started, when it comes to all of the things on my plate this year. It's exciting.

Here's what I'm hoping to achieve this year:

1. 500 PlayStation games: This goal is very attainable, as I'm only 15 titles away. What's tricky is finding games that I want to actually play-- as opposed to just owning, because reasons. Many of the games that I still want to get are up there in price, including Dragon Valor, Grandia, Street Fighter EX Plus 2, and others. There are others that I want to get for silly reasons, such as Barbie Explorer and Barbie Detective; I attribute these to Clint from Lazy Game Reviews, who has put together videos of himself playing Barbie games and they've left me laughing for days. (He's also the motivation behind my collecting the Mary-Kate & Ashley games for the PlayStation. Thanks, Clint.) We'll see what #500 will be, maybe for my birthday.

Mistakes will be made.

2. Acquire demo discs: Demo discs for the PlayStation, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast, and even the Gamecube are on my radar this year, My family helped out with some demos this past Christmas, and I've really enjoyed trying them out and seeing not only the games on offer... but also the extra stuff that these discs had. Code archives, interviews, behind-the-scenes features, and even import games to try make these discs pretty sweet relics from the past. Chief on my want list are the early PlayStation demo discs, including the ore-launch developer demo disc and the PlayStation Picks disc from September of 1995. I also have my eye on the PlayStation Underground "magazine" demo sets, which are packed with awesome content. Sadly, a lot of these discs were thrown away or cast off, so prices on these tend to be a bit higher than I'd like... but I'm still hopeful to find more of these in 2017.

Jampack Volume 1 for the PlayStation. So cool.

3. Get a Game Boy Advance SP / Classic NES Edition: This is probably a stretch, given that I'm hoping to get one of these without donating a kidney to afford it. The Game Boy Advance platform has an amazing library of games, and the fact that it's basically a portable Super NES makes it all the more desirable. The Final Fantasy Advance series is really good, too. Then there's the WarioWare games, the Classic NES series of releases, Pinball of the Dead, a decent version of Virtua Tennis, and more. I could (and probably will) get a different GBA SP sometime this year, but my heart is set on the Classic NES version. What can I say... I'm an NES fan!

My preciousssssss? Maybe. Probably not.

4. Fully catalog my video game library: I wanted to do this last year, but failed to do so. As a result, I wound up buying doubles without knowing it until it was too late. While I adore PureGaming's Collector Suite on iOS, I'm still waiting for a Wii app to arrive (which is certainly a Herculean effort, given all of those games to list) and still need to catalog my Xbox 360 and 3DS titles. The Wii app is due in 2017, so I should be able to catalog 90% of my overall library when it goes live. In the meantime, I need to go back through my other games and verify what I have versus what I've got listed. I had forgotten that I had bought Syphon Filter 3 earlier this year, until I saw it last night while playing some random games. I never had it listed on the PlayStation app. Oops.

PureGaming's Collector Suite for iOS has been useful for me.

Three of these four goals are pretty doable. The GBA SP is probably the one that I miss out on, but that doesn't mean that I won't try. There are certainly challenges to all four goals. PlayStation game inventory at local video game stores is way down. Demo discs are even more scarce. Moreover, my free time is equally as scarce, given the new job (which I adore). There aren't any gimmes on this list, so I'll have to work for these if I want to make them happen-- and that's how goals should work.

As it stands, though, I have 365 days to achieve these things. It's a new year-- and, as such, I pass along my sincerest wishes to all of you for nothing but the very best of everything in 2017. 2016 was a trying year for many, and this year won't be without its tribulations, but let's cross those rickety bridges when we come to them,

Pete's Picks: Top Five Favorite Super Mario Games

Who am I?

I played my first video game way back in 1976: An APF TV Fun PONG clone that my father brought home. It's been 41 years since then, and my love of video games has only grown since. While I do play some modern console video games, the majority of my time and attention is spent on games of yesteryear: arcade games and console games between 1977 and 2007.

I began collecting older video games in earnest back in 2012, when I turned 40. I got a Nintendo Entertainment System for my birthday, and decided to focus on adding games for older consoles from that point on. I now have more than 2,000 titles in my library, covering the NES, SNES, Genesis, SEGA CD, Nintendo 64, PlayStation, Dreamcast, PlayStation 2, Gamecube, and Wii. I also have another 200 Xbox 360 games, which I play on occasion.

I don't just collect and play video games, though. I occasionally write about them and/or shoot videos on my YouTube channel that reflect on my personal experiences with them. I've been writing about video games since 1998, but moved away from covering modern gaming in 2014 and focused on retro gaming thereafter.

Aside from video games and my day job in education, singing is a major passion of mine. From time to time, I'll hop onto Singsnap and record some karaoke vocal covers. I worked as a karaoke show host for a decade, so singing still gets my blood flowing... even in retirement.